Silo.



W- H. LUDWIG.

SILO.

APPLIOATION FILED JULY 24, 1911.

Patented Oct. 14, 1913.

ILO'?5360.

. Witnesses lnv Attorneys t V v being tightening of the hoops.

. nnrrnn srarns rarnn'r orricn.

WILLIAM HERMAN tunwxe, orvnsrun, WISCONSIN.

SILO.

1,0753%, Specification of Letters '1a tent. Patented Oct, 14, 1913,

. Application filed July 24, 1911. Serial No. 640,354. I

To all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that I, VVILLIAM LUDWIG, a citizen of the United States, residing at esper, in the county of Wood and State of Visconsin, have invented a new and useful Silo, of which the following is a specification. This invention relates to silos and its principal object is to provide a silo the hoops of which are adjustably connected to cross rods or rungs extending transversely Within the door. frame whereby the. various hoops can be readily adjusted by a person ascending the ladder formed by said rungs, this particularly desirable feature in stave silos wherein more or less shrinkage of the staves occurs and necessitates the A further object 18. to provide a door frame having removable cross rods or rungs whereby a person may enter the door opening while in an erect position.

A further object is to provide a. novel form of silo roof or cover made up of separately shiftable sections Whereb the filling and packin of the silo is. facilitated.

Another dbject is to provide an improved form of locking element which may be applied to the rungs without removing sai rungs from the door frame.

Another object is to pfovidea silo door having steps therein which can be used with the cross rods connected to the sides of the door frame.

A still further object is to provide im-' proved means for splicing together-short lengths of staves, the joints being self-draining so as to prevent moisture from entering the silo through the joints.

A further object is to rovide an improved form of anchor for ho ding stay wires to the'ground, said anchor being adapted to be used in connection with a novel form of wire tightener.

' scope ofwhat'is claimed Without departing from the spirit of the. invention.

tion in the door frame.

upper end of the lower section In the accompanying drawings the preferred forms of the invention have been,

shown.

In said drawings :-Figure 1 is a front elevation of a portion of a silo and its door and also showing the connection between a hoop and one of the rungs in the door frame. Fig. 2 is. a perspective view-of a portionof the silo, showing the connection between one end portion of the hoop and the rung. Fig. 3 is a planview of a portion of a hoop of a modified form, the same being; shown extended completely across the door opening,

a portion of the silo being shown in sec- 1 tion. Fig.4. is a perspective view of a portion of a" spliced stave. Fig. 5 is a detail view of one of the locking elements employed for securing a door section inposi- Fig. 6 is a front elevation of a modified form of cross bar orrung, the same being detachably connected to the sides of the door frame. Fig. 7 is a plan view of the rung and itsconnections shown in Fig.- 6. Fig. 8 is a perspec-' tive view of another form of rung and its connections.

Referring to the figures by characters of a reference 1 desi nates a portion of the body of the silo, said ody being preferably made of staves tongue and instances, these staves extend height of the wall of the silo.

necessary to splice the'staves,

throughout the \Vhere it is however, the of the stave is formed with a rounded upwardly extending tongue, such as indicated at 2 in Fi 4, said tongue projecting into a correspon ing groove 3 formed in the lower end of the next adjoining section thereabove. By assembling the stave sections in-this manner, the joints, are self-draining. and there is no dan ger of moisture filtering through the oint and into the silo.

grooved and in most The silo is fitted with a door frame at of the same construction a o. 979,679, issuednto .me, o

that disclosed in Patent December. 10,

versely the present instance, however, these rungs around the silo. Inthis construction shown screw threaded end portions] extended extending rods5 forming rungs. -In

r ug h s d r. h in an -9. 1910, said frame beingv provided with tran'selongated l1rs dwhich bear against thesides of the'frame .4 and against the adjacent portions of the silo wall, the ends ofthe rungs being held within these lugs by, means of 3 nuts or the like. Each hoop also includes, in

addition to the rung 5 and lugs 6, a band indicated at 'Z, and which has itsien'd por-- tions extending slidably into the end por f tions 'of the lugs 6 and provided with'adstant pull-upon the band and thus cause it to hind continuously upon the staves and promptlytake up, any flooseness in the joints due "to'the :c'ontracticn of thestaves; It-will be noted that the lugs are all arrangedalong the sides of the door frame'and it isthus;

possible ,for a person to use the rungsfi as a ladder and tothus' readily reachthe nuts 8 for thepurp'ose of adjustingthe bands 7 and increasing the stress of springs ut). This is, obviously, an important improvement over ordinary silo structures ,wherein ladders have necessarily been employed for the purpose oftaking up slack .inth'e hoopsthese different. points t patenthereinbefore mentioned. These doors, 1

' however, can .be'm'ade up of one or more seeladde rs ,being erected .at along the walls of the silos.- 1

If desired certain iof-i the rungs 5, or, if preferred, all of them, can be detachably mounted. InfFigs. 6 and 7 the lugs 6 have been showniengaging threadedsteins 10 projecting through the sides oft-hefdoo'r frame 4 and prdyided-with headsiI-l. These heads have sockets 12' in the upper faces thereof and-saidsOckets receive knobs or, enlargements i13 fformed at the ends of a cross-bar or rod constituting arung 14: which ,may likewisebe consideredasection oft-he hoop.

it Obviously, by. removing thefrung 14 from engagement with the heads '11, tl1 "d00r openingis-elearedof obstructions and a person can then walking erect; v I o Instead of'forming sockets upon thestems as shownin Figs. 6. and 7, eyes 15 may be formed upon the stems-16, there being col lars l7onthe stems for limiting their movemnt through the sides of the ,doorff'rame.

U ese eyes are adapted to receivefingers- 18 ing at right-angles therefrom.

In Fig. 3 one end portionof the band '20 has been shown extended entirely across the door opening and securedto-one end of the lug 21 while the other end of the band is {extended loosely into the other end of the bearing" against o'neend' of a spring 23, the

other endof said spring bearing against one enter thedoor opening while gformed'at the ends of a'rung 19 and extendily reached-by a person standing on one of the jrungs.

close to said ladder where they can be read 7 rectly back of the hoop; said braces being preferably recessed. longitudinally along 1 their outer faces, as indicated at 25, soas to form spaces between the hoopand the cross strip whereby said hoop can be used as av 'hand hold Or laddera.

gri'p by a person-using the j From the foregoing description it'will be seen that in each of the forms described the 7 hoops are} extended across the door opening so as to form'ladderrungs, these rungs, in

the structure shown in Figs. 1 and 2, being ,made up of separate sections to which the endsi of the'band are'connec ted by the lugs, I

the structurein Figs. 6, 7 and 8 having detachable hoop sections extended across the door opening and the structure shown in" Fig. 3 showing the 'main] hoop portion or band extended across the dooropening, sepfl arate hoop sections being eliminated.

,- The doors used for closing the frame 4 maybe of any desired construction but are preferably similarto those disclosed in my tions hingedly connected, as indicated at 26,.and each door section may be provided,

in laddition to an inclined keeper or handle 27, with astep 28 made up of a rod having offset end portions secured to the cleats 29 upon the, door sections 30,' eaeh step being preferably located adjacent the central por tion of the door section, while the keeper 27 is-located adjacentthe upper' end portion thereof, Silo fasteners 31 are mounted on therungs 5 ofthe' ladder. and are movable .into engagement with-the inclined keeper's :27 so asto securely'hold the door sections in of an open'eye, such as shown'at32in Fig. 5.

By providingthis form of eye, the fastener can be appliedv to the rung without detaching said rung from the door frame and by then bending the eye to closed position, as

indicated by dotted. lines'in Fig. 5,. the fastener'will be held securely, upon the rungr Whilethe-structure has been shown and described applied to a silo it is to'be understood that the same can be'used in connec" q tion with tanks and any other structures. lug and has an adjusting nut 22 thereon the band are in the same plane and the ends} of the band are extended along straight lines so ha ,whentne hoop is tightened, the hoop I is not distorted as would be the case should I adjusting means be attached to a curved portion of the hoop.

It is to be understood that other forms of lugs than those shown and described may be provided for connecting the ends of the hoop to the silo or tank.

The term silo as used in the claims is not intended to restrict the invention to a silo structure but is to be understood as including tanks or any other structures with which the hoops may be used.

The springs 9 can be dispensed with whenever found practical or desirable and instead ofusing lugs such as shown at 6, the straight ends of the hoop section 7 can be extended diagonally through the end portions of a cross brace such as shown at 24 and adjust ably held by nuts or the like.

hat is claimed is 1. A silo including a door frame having a portion outstanding from the silo wall, lugs bearing against the sides of the outstanding portion of the frame, means extending through the frame for tying the lugs thereto, and a hoop having its ends adjustably engaging the respective lugs.

2. A silo having a door opening, lugs sccured to the silo wall adjacent opposite sides of the opening, a hoop having its endsr connected to the lugs, and a tie and spacing element connecting the lugs, spanning the door opening, and arrangedin the same horizontal plane with the hoop.

3. The combination with a silo having a,35

door frame, of stems extending through said frame, a hoop section bearing downwardly on and detachably engaging the stems to tie them together, and constituting a ladder rung, and another hoop section adjustably connected to said stems, said sections and stems constituting an endless hoop.

4:. The combination with a silo having a door frame, of stems extending through the frame, a hoop section connected to and liftable out of engagement with the stems and extending across the door opening to tie the stems together, said section constituting a ladder rung, lugs engaged by the stems, and

a hoop section adjustably connected to the WILLIAM HERMAN LUDYVIG.

lVitnesses D. E. W'oomaurr, ANNA CHARMLEY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Gomzrssioner of Patents,

Washington, I). c." 

